24.6.12

Review: New Balance 110s

Greetings and welcome to my failure blog. Today I'm writing a quick review of my new pair of New Balance (NB) 110s.

Before purchasing them, my previous experience with NB shoes were the 991s. They were my shoe of choice from about '03 until '04. I ran in a different model (trail) of NBs for a short time before causing over-use stress fractures in my tibiae in the summer of '04. Afterwards, I experimented with Aisics, Saucony, and Brooks but never really was able to get comfortable with any mileage over 3 miles per run (and running 1-2 times per week).

So, fast forward five years of college and two years of active duty army service. I have come to love minimal/barefoot running. It started with Barefoot Ken Bob and Jason Robillard and has grown to a collection of shoes that puts my wife's footwear selection to shame.

I currently own one part each of Merrell Trail Gloves (TG) and Road Gloves (RG) and with Merrell Sonic socks. I've been deployed to southern Afghanistan for about three months now and live in an area almost exclusively covered in gravel. We have about an 800m strip of nice pavement, but aside from that it is a mixture of small, medium, and large size gravel.

The need for a new pair of shoes (I LOVE my TGs and RGs) arose from repeated stone bruises under the ball of my left foot. I couldn't do any significant distance without bruising my foot 5-6 times. And the pain is ridiculous. I've become such a pansy to foot/leg pain after the comfort of barefoot/minimal road running.

Before deploying I ran with a couple of guys who trained in the NB 101s. I recalled them mentioning that their shoes had "rock plates" in them and were great for technical trails (Colorado Springs). So, I jumped on them internets and looked at what NB had to offer. I found the 110s on amazon, did a little bit of research and took the plunge. The selling points for me were the (1) rock plate and (2) the minimal 4mm drop. They did not fail to impress.

Their maiden voyage was a short one. We did a crossfit workout today that consisted of a short warm up jog (about 600m) and 10x200m sprints on pavement. Also a little bit of jogging/walking lunges on medium gravel.

The Good:

The rock plate worked like I hoped it would. I still felt the pointy rocks, but no sharp pain. The pressure was diffuse well across the plate.

They are super light! Just a tad bit heavier than my TG/RGs.

The 4mm drop is noticeable after running in zero drop for about a year, but I had none of the traditional knee/hip/back pain that I had when running in shoes that ranged 12-16mm drop.

The Nicht-So-Gut:

I had some rubbing on my left toes. My middle three toes felt slightly raw on the walk back to my room after the workout. I'm okay with this - I think it will pass as the shoes break-in a little bit.

They feel pretty squishy. At first I liked that, but I soon felt out of control on the gravel. My ankles wanted to tilt some. Again, I'm okay with this because the cushioning will eventually degrade and get me closer to the ground.

All-in-all, they do the trick and I'm happy with them. I'd like to run them on the trails at home (Red Rocks Canyon, Cheyenne Mountain, etc.) and see how they hold up.